Stop Calling It a Roadmap. It’s Just a To-Do List (Until You Tell a Better Story)

Author's Note: I disappeared for a month because my kid started daycare, which is basically a petri dish with nap time. Then I got sick, then sick again, then decided if I was going to cough non-stop I might as well do it on vacation. Also had some interviews to prep for. Anyway, I’m alive, the germs have retreated (for now), and I’m back to torching fake research theater. Let’s go.

Most "research roadmaps" are just glorified suggestion boxes: a graveyard of old PM asks, pet topics, and ad-hoc fire drills dressed up in Asana columns. You know the drill. Stakeholder A wants a usability test. Stakeholder B needs a quick survey. The CEO heard about some competitor feature and suddenly you're researching whether users want dark mode. Again.

Let me be clear: That's not a roadmap. That's a to-do list with delusions of strategy.

The difference matters more than you think. While you're checking boxes and managing requests, someone else is telling the story of where the business is headed. And guess what? That story doesn't include a chapter called "Miscellaneous Research Tasks."

The Big Truth About What Stakeholders Actually Care About

Here's what keeps executives up at night: not your list of studies, but their list of bets. The big, risky moves that could make or break the business. The expansion into Southeast Asia that could double revenue or burn through the runway. The pricing strategy that might unlock enterprise customers or alienate existing ones. The product pivot that could save the company or kill it entirely.

Your roadmap should tell the story of how you'll de-risk, accelerate, or reframe those bets. Not how you'll dutifully complete every research request that lands in your inbox.

Think of it this way: a good roadmap is a narrative arc, not a dump of tasks. It has tension, momentum, and a payoff that matters to people who don't live in the weeds of user research methodology. It answers the question every stakeholder is really asking: "How is this work going to help us win?"

Why the To-Do List Approach Fails Every Time

The traditional approach to research roadmaps fails for four predictable reasons, and chances are you've experienced every one of them.

First, it's completely reactive. Every squeaky wheel gets a ticket. The loudest PM gets their usability test. The most persistent marketing manager gets their segmentation study. You're not driving strategy; you're responding to whoever emails you last. This turns you into an order-taker instead of a strategic partner, and order-takers don't get invited to the meetings where real decisions happen.

Second, it's frustratingly fragmented. There's no throughline connecting the work. You run a pricing study in Q1, a navigation test in Q2, and a brand perception survey in Q3. Each might be perfectly executed, but together they tell no coherent story about where the business is going or how research is helping it get there. Stakeholders can't connect the dots because there are no dots to connect.

Third, it's impossibly unprioritized. When everything is on the list, nothing is really important. All asks feel equally urgent because there's no framework for deciding what matters most. You end up spending equal energy on a minor feature improvement and a major market expansion, which is like spending equal time choosing your socks and choosing your career.

Finally, it's strategically invisible. No one outside UXR cares about your roadmap because there's no tension or payoff. It doesn't build toward anything. It doesn't resolve anything. It just... exists. And things that just exist tend to get deprioritized when budgets get tight.

How to Build a Roadmap That Actually Tells a Story

Building a narrative-driven roadmap isn't about fancy frameworks or complex tools. It's about fundamentally changing how you think about the purpose and structure of your research plan.

Start with the Business Bets

Before you write a single research question, identify what's on the company's "this better work or we're toast" list. What are the big strategic moves leadership is making or considering? Maybe it's reducing churn to improve unit economics. Maybe it's expanding into a new market segment. Maybe it's launching a premium tier to increase average revenue per user.

These aren't always obvious, and they're not always well-communicated. You might need to dig. Schedule coffee chats with product leaders, sit in on strategy meetings, read the board deck. The goal is to understand what keeps your CEO awake at night, because those are the problems your research should help solve.

Define Your Story Arcs

Once you understand the big bets, break them down into thematic arcs that can hold multiple studies. Think of these as the major storylines in your research roadmap, each building toward answering a critical business question.

For example, if reducing churn is a major business bet, your arc might be "Understanding and Reducing Customer Attrition." This could include studies on why customers leave, how different segments behave differently, what early warning signs predict churn, and which interventions most effectively retain at-risk users.

If improving conversion for a specific segment is crucial, your arc might be "Optimizing the Enterprise Customer Journey." This could encompass research on decision-making processes in B2B contexts, friction points in the current sales funnel, competitive evaluation criteria, and post-purchase onboarding effectiveness.

The key is that each study within an arc builds on the previous one and sets up the next one. You're not just conducting research; you're unfolding a story that gets more compelling and actionable with each chapter.

Sequence for Maximum Momentum

Order your studies so each insight creates appetite for the next one. Start with foundational research that frames the problem and builds credibility. Move to diagnostic work that identifies specific opportunities. Then progress to evaluative research that tests solutions. Finally, conduct validation studies that measure impact.

This sequencing does two things: it ensures each study is maximally useful because it builds on solid foundations, and it creates narrative momentum that keeps stakeholders engaged. When your Q1 study reveals that 40% of churned customers cited a specific pain point, everyone wants to know what you'll learn about solving that pain point in Q2.

Reserve Capacity for Plot Twists

Reality will throw curveballs. A competitor will launch something unexpected. A key metric will suddenly tank. A new regulatory requirement will emerge. Your roadmap needs to accommodate these surprises without breaking the narrative.

Build in flexibility by reserving 20-30% of your capacity for urgent work that still ties back to your main story arcs. When the inevitable fire drill emerges, you can address it quickly while maintaining the momentum of your larger narrative.

Make It Visual, Not a Spreadsheet

Stakeholders don't read roadmaps; they scan them. They don't process spreadsheets; they respond to stories. Your roadmap format should reflect this reality.

Instead of a detailed project timeline in Excel, create a simple narrative map that shows your story arcs, key questions, rough timelines, and expected business impact. Use a format that someone could understand in 30 seconds and remember after a single viewing.

Include brief descriptions of why each arc matters to the business. Show how studies connect to each other and build toward larger insights. Make it clear what success looks like and how you'll measure it.

Most importantly, make it something you can present confidently in any meeting. Your roadmap shouldn't be a reference document buried in a shared drive. It should be a pitch for why research matters and how it's going to help the business win.

A Tale of Two Approaches

Let me show you the difference between a to-do list masquerading as a roadmap and an actual narrative-driven approach.

The To-Do List Version:

• Q1: Run usability testing on checkout flow
• Q2: Conduct churn survey with lapsed customers
• Q3: Test new homepage concept with target users
• Q4: Research competitor pricing strategies

Each of these might be valuable in isolation, but together they tell no story. There's no clear connection between the checkout usability work and the churn survey. The homepage testing seems disconnected from everything else. The competitive pricing research feels like an afterthought.

The Story Arc Version: Reducing Abandonment in the Purchase Funnel

• Q1: Map comprehensive user drop-off points across the entire purchase journey to identify where we're losing potential customers
• Q2: Conduct deep-dive usability research on the checkout flow to understand why users abandon at the final step
• Q3: A/B test redesigned checkout concepts that address identified friction points
• Q4: Validate retention impact and revenue lift from improved conversion rates

Now you have a coherent narrative. Each study builds on the previous one. The business impact is clear. Stakeholders can see how their investment in research is directly contributing to a problem they care about solving.

The difference isn't just cosmetic. The story arc version creates accountability, builds momentum, and generates excitement about what you might discover next. The to-do list version generates compliance at best and indifference at worst.

The Real Talk About Research Impact

Nobody remembers your backlog. They don't recall the detailed methodology of that card sort you ran in Q2. They definitely don't care about your sample sizes or confidence intervals.

What they remember is how your work gave them confidence to place a risky bet. How your insights helped them avoid a costly mistake. How your research provided the evidence they needed to secure additional resources or change a strategic direction.

A roadmap that tells a story doesn't just make your life easier by providing clear priorities and logical sequencing. It makes your work impossible to ignore because it directly connects to the outcomes that matter most to the business.

When your research consistently builds toward answering the questions that keep leadership awake at night, you stop being seen as a service provider and start being seen as a strategic partner. You get invited to earlier conversations. Your budget becomes more secure. Your recommendations carry more weight.

Most importantly, you start doing work that actually moves the needle instead of just checking boxes.

Your Next Move

Your research roadmap shouldn't be a dumping ground for every request that crosses your desk. It shouldn't be a static document that gets updated quarterly and forgotten immediately after.

Make it a narrative that builds suspense and delivers payoffs. Make it a pitch for why research matters and how it's going to drive the business forward. Make it a story that makes the next big bet a little less terrifying and a lot more likely to succeed.

The companies that win don't just collect data. They use research to write better stories about their customers, their markets, and their opportunities. Your roadmap should be the outline for that story.

Stop managing a to-do list. Start directing a narrative. The business is counting on you to help them figure out what happens next.

🎬 Still treating your research plan like an endless list of chores?

I write sarcastic, dead-honest field notes for researchers stuck between stakeholder noise and real business bets—where “alignment” is fiction and the roadmap is the only story that matters.

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